Charles Collins

According to Laura Wagner's article on Charles for Films of the Golden Age (Spring, 2015), the handsome actor was too tall and lean to make a strong impression in films. Nothing came of his one big film role in Dancing Pirate (1936) or his second and last feature Swing Hostess (1944) opposite Martha Tilton.

In one episode of the failed 1984 TV show "The Master", Collins plays an elderly hoofer who often reminisces about his audition for "Dancing Pirate," and a clip presumably from the movie is shown. The show was used for an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as "Master Ninja II".

Following Dorothy's death in 1974, he met and lived with his longtime companion Catherine Garvin.

Their final Broadway endeavors were "You Can't Take It With You" (1945), which starred Dorothy's father Fred Stone and the revival of her father's stage vehicle "The Red Mill" (1947). When offers faded, Charles later switched to focus more as a talent agent.

A second feature lead in Swing Hostess (1944) opposite Martha Tilton proved the same.

In later years he and his wife returned to Broadway ("Sea Legs" (1937), "Hooray for What!" (1938), toured in a slew of stage shows, appeared in a couple of musical shorts, and entertained the troops overseas.

Amiable, dark and wavy-haired and with a slim mustache, actor/dancer Charles Collins would be distantly remembered for his one big film role, the title charmer in the lowbudget programmer Dancing Pirate (1936).

The lead in Poverty Row musical Dancing Pirate (1936) was too lowbudget to garner much interest in the tall, lean actor.

They also appeared in the Broadway musical "Smiling Faces" (192 and "As Thousands Cheer" (1934).

They also appeared in Charles' first film short Shave It with Music (1932) and in the short Paree, Paree (1934). He failed to capitalize on his two chances at film stardom.

Charles met dancer/actress Dorothy Stone, daughter of actor Fred Stone, when they were all performing in the Broadway musical "Ripples" (1930) and they married a year later. Later they put together a nightclub dance act.

Born on January 7, 1904, on a farm in Frederick, Oklahoma, he was a self-taught teenage saxophone player before learning to dance. A business school graduate following high school, he later worked as an accountant but never lost track of his interest in dancing and sidelined as a performer in a local Oklahoma City musical "The Merry Widow". He continued to this artistic interest with work in vaudeville and made his Broadway debut as a dancer in "Artists and Models" at age 23. Meeting fellow dancer Nitza Vermille in the show, they formed a dancing act on the vaudeville circuit and he later soloed in London revues for a time.